The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-25
THE SLAVERY OF LABOR.


of labor" Parsons and the other Anarchists
had a great deal to say about it. Johann
Most grows violently eloquent the sub
ject. 1t is a leading topic in their addresses,
appeals, manifestoes and newspapers. Dema-
gogues who dare not openly sympathize with
Anarchists, but who wish to curry favor with
the rahble, echo these sentiments. Working
men are told they are the slaves of capital.
Capitalists are stigmatized as slave masters
and the owners of courts, Legislatures and
every branch of the government. The con-
dition of labor is represented as one of
oppression and degradation, slavery in fact
though not in name, condition of hopeless
bondage from which there is no escape no
rising to better estate, compensation in
the present and no hope for the future. The
''capitalistic class are the vampires Of
society," slave-owners and slave-drivers, whose
principal object in life is to keep workingmen
in subsection in order that they may rob and
Cypress them and enrich themselves by the
profits of slave labor There is great deal
of this kind of talk going on, and it is very
mischievous. Cunningly applied by able
and unprincipled men, it becomes very
dangerous. Formulated in specious
arguments and infiammatory appeals
to workingmen it has great power for evil.
1t has already done immense harm. and un-
less vigorously comhated and it's utter falsity
exposed, it is likely to do great deal more.
If there were any truth in these pessimistic
representations as to the condition of labor
and the relations between labor and capital,
the situation would be discouraging indeed.
1t would be proof that modern civilization is
gigantic fraud and dismal failure. Such
condition would justify anarchism, or at least
revolution, for it would be a condition of
organized tyranny on side and unpro-
tected weakness on the other, than which
nothing could be worse. 1t is the aim of the
Anarchists to convince workingmen that the
condition does exist, for when that point is
gained it is but a step to open violence and
revolution. But does it exist Does any
thing like it exist Emphatically, no. There
is not particle of truth in the representa-
tons referred to- They absolutely with
out foundation or existence, except in the
morbid imaginations of Anarchists and agi-
tators. There is no such thing in this
country as the slavery Of labor. It is
an insult to honest labor to talk of
such thing, and no self-respecting American
workingman should listen to it. Labor never
as free in any other age or in any other
only restrictions or limitations on it are self
mposed, the result of trade-unions and of
class legislation instituted by labor itself.
But for these every workingman in the
master of himself and his labor. Except
these labor rests under no disabilities. They
who talk about the slavery of labor assume
that once laborer always a laborer, that
capitalists born such, and that between
labor and capital there is fixed great gulf
which no iaboring can ever hope to
cross. Nothing could be further from the
truth. A very large majority of the oapi tai
lists in this country to-day were once labor
ers, and large proportion of the present
are crossing and intermingling constantly.
Neither condition is fixed, and the fact that
they are continually blending is the best proof
of the freedom of both. The relation is not
one of master and slave, but of equal and CO.
operative workers. At no former period of
history, nor in any other country, was capital
ever as friendly disposed, as active in its eff
forts to elevate labor and assist workingmen
as in this country to-day. Intelligent work
ingmen see this and are wing with capital to
establish middle ground of mutual interest
and good understanding 1t is only the igno-
rant the ill-informed, the short-sighted and
the evil-disposed among workingmen who
take different view, and who insist on main
as these are ready converts to the pernicious
theory of the slavery of labor. They are will
ing to accept the designation of slaves in
der to afford seeming justification for their
course as chronic agitators.
This much is due to truth, but to this it
must be added that labor is subjected to some
exactions and hardships which are grievous in
themselves and disgraceful to those who i'm.
pose them. Not all employers arc generous
or even fair or honest. Some grasping to
the last degree, hard to the verge of cruelty.
There are employers, individuals as we'll as
corporations, who seem to begrudge their en-.
ployes not only living but the right to live |
and who apparently would rob wage-workers |
of the very means of existence. Such en-
ployers disgrace TO humanity. They |
are, we believe, comparatively few, but they |
are numerous enough to furnish constant
ground for discomfort among workingmen.
They are the ones who promote the pretext
for labor agitation and the soil in which anar-